Friday, February 9, 2007

Well, I don't suppose Greg would appreciate it if I finished that sentence!

It's rained all day yesterday and looks to rain right through the weekend and into next week. Finally some regular winter weather here. I went back and visited the site of my botched (and yet successful) efforts to snap the Hermit Thrush and got a nice shot of him (her?) from my car without laying on the horn. I love how fluffed up he looks -- compare it to the other shot below. Cute!

There are several local internet weather stations in Boulder Creek. I look at all of them but Boulder Creek is such an area of microclimates that the rainfall at one could be totally different from what we experience here at our house. This one usually feels about right though . . . {click}. That chart shows the current rain conditions. It's just been the steady, soaking rain that we usually get and like so much around here. It's good for everything and not dangerous to the hills and people. When it rains too much, too fast, we are at serious risk of mudslides. My senior year in high school we had a storm like that and it was devastating. We were very careful when we bought our house -- there are no hills above us that could become unstable and slide -- and we're not on one either, thank goodness. Giant trees, steep hillsides, and huge quantities of rain are not a good combination.

This rain though is so appreciated. Which isn't to say that we aren't all griping about it. Everything is just a big more difficult when it is raining constantly . . . my job requires that I walk around campus a lot gathering groups of kids and bringing them to my room for a half-hour lesson and then taking them back again. So, I make the decision to take a coat or umbrella about 47 times a morning. Usually I just risk it. Unless it's POURING which it can do here. A real Boulder Creek rain is when you have your wipers on high and you still can't see because it's raining so hard. Sometimes I can't see across my backyard because of the density of the rain coming down. We haven't had a storm like that this winter. Yet? Hard to say, it's been a weird year and those storms usually come in January when we had virtually no rain at all.

Okay, enough on the rain. Today is the last day of the week. All your weekend plans sound great! Tonight, I pack up our clothes, some food, and finish giving the motorhome a quick clean while Greg takes the kids to soccer. Tomorrow, bright and early, we'll head off on our adventurous camping trip! Still no confirmation from the two breeders I wanted to visit about seeing their dogs. Weird but what are you going to do. Maybe the fates are intervening to tell me that Ruby is the right dog for us.

Looking at the blossoms behind your hermit thrush I suddenly realize that you are beginning spring out there in California while we are in the heaviest month of winter (unless March takes a turn this year)Hope you are having a great weekend in your camper:)